Robin Goodfellow’s racing tips: Best bets for Saturday, November 6
Sportsmail' s racing expert Robin Goodfellow dishes out his tips for Saturday's meetings at Aintree, Doncaster, Wincanton and in California for the Breeders' Cup Mile.
Month: November 2021
Echo Zulu Obliterates Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Field
When a heavy favorite enters any athletic contest, the best strategy can sometimes be to never let the underdog get into the game. Echo Zulu employed that exact game plan to perfection in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies on Friday at Del Mar, and all but guaranteed herself an Eclipse Award at the end of the year.
The 2-year-old Gun Runner filly was hustled out of the gate from the outside post by jockey Joel Rosario, who trainer Steve Asmussen named aboard Echo Zulu for the Juvenile Fillies instead of regular rider Ricardo Santana, Jr. Rosario and Echo Zulu quickly worked their way in to the rail, and snuffed out the oxygen of any rival trying to fight for the early fractions.
Echo Zulu was safely ahead of next-closest Tarabi, as she led the field into an opening quarter-mile in :23.42 seconds, while Desert Dawn and Juju's Map battled a length behind Tarabi for third position. The leader continued to maintain a one-length advantage over Tarabi across the backstretch as the half-mile point passed in :47.01 seconds.
The field bunched up behind Echo Zulu, and the duo of Tarabi and Juju's Map got to the outside hip of the leader as they approached the turn, but Echo Zulu promptly repelled the challengers, and put them several lengths behind her heading into the turn, all without Rosario's hands leaving the reins.
“She is amazing,” Rosario said. “She is fast, has so much speed and it looks like she is not going that fast. Today she liked what she was doing up there (in the front) and when I asked her, she just took off. She's just amazing.”
Rosario did little else but shake the reins aboard Echo Zulu down the Del Mar stretch, as the filly drew off to win by 5 1/4 lengths. Juju's Map carried on for second, a half-length ahead of Tarabi.
Echo Zulu completed the 1 1/16-mile race in 1:42.24 over a fast main track, paying $3.60 to win as the overwhelming favorite.
Friday's Breeders' Cup victory improved Echo Zulu's lifetime record to a perfect four-for-four and all but clinched the Eclipse Award for champion 2-year-old filly. Echo Zulu won on debut in Saratoga in July, then took the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes at the same track. Her most recent start prior to the Breeders' Cup was a 7 1/4-length demolishing of the G1 Frizette Stakes at Belmont Park on Oct. 3.
“The level of proud is just unbelievable, with her being in the first crop of Gun Runner, what he's done for us,” Asmussen said. “A filly that came through mom and dad's program in Laredo. She's just brilliant. She's faster than they are. It's as simple as that. We're just so fortunate to be around her.”
Asmussen trains Echo Zulu for the partnership of L and N Racing and Winchell Thoroughbreds.
It was an especially satisfying victory for the Winchell operation, which also campaigned sire Gun Runner to a Breeders' Cup Classic win at Del Mar in 2017. Echo Zulu's victory also made it a virtual guarantee that Gun Runner will finish atop the freshman sire standings in 2021, having already entered the Breeders' Cup card with a healthy lead by earnings.
“It reminds me of Gun Runner,” owner Ron Winchell said. “She got out there and took command. Then took it down a notch, relaxed and got it done in the stretch. It looked a lot like (Gun Runner's) Pegasus: out, over, relax and then go.”
Bred in Kentucky by the partnership of Betz/J. Betz/Burns/CHNNHK/Magers/CoCo Equine/Ramsby, Echo Zulu was a $300,000 purchase by Winchell Thoroughbreds at the 2020 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
Quotes from other connections:
Trainer Brad Cox (second with Juju's Map) – “She broke a little slow and (Florent Geroux)a put her in a good position. She raced a little wide, but she was no match for the winner. Second best today. Bottom line. No excuse.”
Trainer Cherie DeVaux (third with Tarabi) – “She ran great stretching out for the first time. The pace didn't unfold the way it looked on paper, so Javier (Castellano) went to Plan B and she ran great, so we're really happy with her performance. It's awesome to come in and have her show up off a layoff and doing something she hasn't done. Our team is great, so I'm very proud of everyone.”
Jockey Javier Castellano (third with Tarabi) – “We had a beautiful trip. I was very happy with her race. She broke good and was right behind the winner all the way. She was running very strong down the stretch and was fighting to be second. It's no disrespect to run third to a champion.”
Trainer Bret Calhoun (fourth with Hidden Connection) – “I'm very disappointed. We had a little higher expectations today. She got a little unnerved in the warmup and stumbled away from there and lost a little position early. Reylu (Gutierrez) had to use her a little bit to get back into position and she didn't have the answer today.”
The post Echo Zulu Obliterates Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Field appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
Stronach 5: Four Winning Tickets Each Return $8,826.10
There were four winning tickets in Friday's Stronach 5, featuring a 12-percent takeout and races from Laurel Park, Gulfstream Park and Golden Gate Fields.
Each ticket was worth $8,826.10.
It was Barak Farm's 2-year-old filly She Is Wisky kicking off the Stronach 5, winning Laurel's seventh race in her third career start and returning $9.80.
Gulfstream's eighth race, the $65,000 Cellars Shiraz for 3-year-old fillies on the Tapeta, served as the second leg of the sequence. Live Oak Plantation's 5-1 shot Inthewinnerscircle ended up exactly there, getting up in the final strides under jockey Cristian Torres to beat Mademoiselle Nova.
It was back to Laurel for the eighth race, featuring fillies and mares going six furlongs on a race moved from the turf to the main track. Heavy favorite and two-time stakes winner Dontletsweetfoolya beat four others for a 6 ¼ length victory.
Golden Gate's fourth race, the fourth race of the Stronach 5, shook things up with the 10-1 shot Awesome Curlin rallying to beat nine other maiden claimers. The Stronach 5 concluded with Gulfstream's 10th race, a maiden claiming event for fillies and mares that went to Triplet, ridden by Edgar Prado.
Friday's races and sequence
Leg One –Laurel Race 7: She Is Wisky $9.80
Leg Two –Gulfstream Race 8: Inthewinnerscircle $13.40
Leg Three –Laurel Race 8: Dontletsweetfoolya $2.60
Leg Four – Golden Gate Race 4: Awesome Curlin $23.40
Leg Five –Gulfstream Race 10: Triplet $8.60
Fans can watch and wager on the action at 1/ST.COM/BET as well as stream all the action in English and Spanish at LaurelPark.com, SantaAnita.com, GulfstreamPark.com, and GoldenGateFields.com.
The minimum wager on the multi-race, multi-track Stronach 5 is $1. If there are no tickets with five winners, the entire pool will be carried over to the next Friday.
If a change in racing surface is made after the wagering closes, each selection on any ticket will be considered a winning selection. If a betting interest is scratched, that selection will be substituted with the favorite in the win pool when wagering closes.
The Maryland Jockey Club serves as host of the Stronach 5.
The post Stronach 5: Four Winning Tickets Each Return $8,826.10 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
Echo Zulu Fires Big in Juvenile Fillies
DEL MAR, CA – During an interview in these pages earlier this week, Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen described returning to Del Mar–the site of Gun Runner's 2017 GI Breeders' Cup Classic victory–with a member of his first crop favored for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies as “dreaming.”
The dream run certainly continued for L and N Racing and Winchell Thoroughbreds' Echo Zulu (Gun Runner) Friday, capping a perfect four-for-four championship season with a powerhouse, 5 1/4-length, wire-to-wire performance in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. Juju's Map (Liam's Map), winner of the GI Darley Alcibiades S. at Keeneland, was second; Tarabi (First Samurai) was third.
“A very special filly,” said Asmussen after saddling his second winner in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies and eighth overall at the World Championships. “She means so much to us, and the fact that she is from the first crop of Gun Runner, everything that he did for us, it's surreal that we're back here at Del Mar for the second Breeders' Cup when his crowning moment was the Breeders' Cup [Classic] here in 2017.”
He continued, “She's just brilliant. She's faster than they are. It's as simple as that. We're just so fortunate to be around her.”
Any similarities to her sire, the 2017 Horse of the Year?
“I think what we've seen, especially today, is how she carries [her speed], what a fluid mover she is and the middle fractions where Gun Runner just seemed to move so effortlessly and horses didn't stay at the same rate he did, that's how she seems to be in her races,” Asmussen replied.
On the engine beneath Joel Rosario while drawn widest of all in post six, Echo Zulu quickly cleared the field passing the stands for the first time and it was pretty much over from there. The 4-5 favorite clicked off sensible fractions of :23.42 and :47.01, began to give them the slip rounding the far turn and was handridden to a championship-sealing performance. The final time of 1:42.24 was a tick faster than the 1:42.50 final clocking established by fellow 'Rising Star' Corniche (Quality Road) later on the card in the Juvenile.
“She is amazing,” said Rosario after riding his 14th Breeders' Cup winner. “She is fast, has so much speed and it looks like she is not going that fast. Today, she liked what she was doing up there and when I asked her, she just took off. She's just amazing.”
Tabbed as a 'Rising Star' in a flashy Saratoga unveiling going 5 1/2 furlongs, Echo Zulu made good on the promise, with dominating front-running wins with matching 90 Beyer Speed Figures in Saratoga's GI Spinaway S. going seven furlongs Sept. 5 and Belmont's one-turn mile GI Frizette S. Oct. 3, respectively. The aforementioned Tarabi was second in the Spinaway. Frizette runner-up Gerrymander (Into Mischief) returned to capture Friday's Tempted S. at Belmont.
Echo Zulu was making her two-turn debut while ridden by Rosario for the first time in the Juvenile Fillies. Ricardo Santana, Jr. piloted Echo Zulu to all three of her previous victories.
Winchell Thoroughbreds, of course, campaigned Gun Runner in partnership, and has also won Breeders' Cup races with Untapable (Distaff) and Tapizar (Dirt Mile), respectively.
“It's something you always dream about when you have a horse like Gun Runner, and first crop getting a, what will be, a champion 2-year-old filly,” Ron Winchell said. “So for us to actually own it and what we did with Gun Runner like Steve [Asmussen] was saying it just makes it that much more special.”
L and N Racing-a partnership comprised of Lee Levinson, his sons Michael and Andy, and family friend Don Nelson-had its colors carried by GISW Echo Town (Speightstown) as well as Kentucky Derby runner-up Lookin At Lee.
“I'm still in shock,” Lee Levinson concluded with a laugh. “And I'm an attorney. I speak for a living, and I can't talk.”
Pedigree Notes:
Echo Zulu, a $300,000 KEESEP graduate, is a half-sister to the Asmussen-trained fellow 'Rising Star' and GI Runhappy H. Allen Jerkens S. winner and young Ashford Stud sire Echo Town. Standing at Three Chimneys Farm, freshman sire Gun Runner is responsible for a leading four graded stakes winners, including the Asmussen-trained GI Hopeful S. winner Gunite. Gun Runner's Pappacap also completed the exacta in the Juvenile later on the program. Echo Zulu is a half-sister to another 'Rising Star' in J Boys Echo (Mineshaft), GSW, $377,543; and Unbridled Outlaw (Unbridled's Song), GSP, $253,478. Letgomyecho's 2020 filly by American Pharoah brought $1.4 million–the highest price for a filly–from Northshore Bloodstock on behalf of Joe Allen at this year's Keeneland September Sale. Echo Zulu's dam was talented herself, winning by 5 1/2 lengths in her Calder debut as a newly turned 3-year-old and streaking to a three-for-three record in the 2005 GII Forward Gal S.
Friday, Del Mar
NETJETS BREEDERS' CUP JUVENILE FILLIES-GI, $1,760,000, Del Mar, 11-5, 2yo, f, 1 1/16m, 1:42.24, ft.
1–ECHO ZULU, 122, f, 2, by Gun Runner
1st Dam: Letgomyecho (GSW, $136,200), by Menifee
2nd Dam: Echo Echo Echo, by Eastern Echo
3rd Dam: Kashie West, by Sir Ivor
'TDN Rising Star'. ($300,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-L and N Racing
LLC & Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC; B-Betz/J. Betz/Burns/
CHNNHK/Magers/ CoCo Equine/Ramsby (KY); T-Steven M.
Asmussen; J-Joel Rosario. $1,040,000. Lifetime Record:
4-4-0-0, $1,480,000. *1/2 to Unbridled Outlaw (Unbridled's
Song), GSP, $253,478; 1/2 to J Boys Echo (Mineshaft), GSW,
$377,543; 1/2 to Echo Town (Speightstown), GISW, $410,020.
Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*. Click for the
eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Juju's Map, 122, f, 2, by Liam's Map
1st Dam: Nagambie, by Flatter
2nd Dam: Charming N Lovable, by Horse Chestnut (SAf)
3rd Dam: St Lucinda, by St. Jovite
($190,000 Ylg '20 KEEJAN; $300,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP).
O-Albaugh Family Stables LLC; B-Fred W. Hertrich (KY); T-Brad Cox. $340,000.
3–Tarabi, 122, f, 2, by First Samurai
1st Dam: Indian Bay, by Indian Charlie
2nd Dam: Buy the Barrel, by E Dubai
3rd Dam: Affordable Price, by Drouilly (Fr)
($240,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-LBD Stable LLC, Manganaro
Bloodstock & David Ingordo; B-Hinkle Farms (KY); T-Cherie
DeVaux. $180,000.
Margins: 5 1/4, HF, 7 3/4. Odds: 0.80, 3.00, 9.80.
Also Ran: Hidden Connection, Sequist, Desert Dawn.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.
The post Echo Zulu Fires Big in Juvenile Fillies appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
